Passenger describes terror before Highway 38 bus crash

Investigators continue to work Monday morning at the scene of a bus crash Sunday night on Highway 38 that killed at least eight people. STAN LIM, AP

UPDATE: 3:19 p.m. California authorities have lowered the death toll in tour bus crash from 8 to 7. More details to come.

YUCAIPA – A runaway bus careened down a mountain road without brakes and the driver called out to passengers to phone 911 before a violent crash with two other vehicles that killed eight people and injured dozens of others, a surviving passenger said Monday.

However, the pleas by the driver were futile because no one had cellphone reception in the rugged area, passenger Gerardo Barrientos, 28, told The Associated Press.

The bus was carrying a group from Tijuana and heading home from a snow trip in Big Bear when it crashed into a sedan and pickup around 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

The cause of the crash remained under investigation.

Records showed the company that operated the bus had failed more than a third of federal vehicle safety inspections in the past two years.

The bus involved in the crash recorded 22 safety violations in about a year's time, including problems with brakes, the windshield and tires, according to inspection reports posted by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

Brake issues were noted in at least three inspections since October 2011.

Barrientos and girlfriend Lluvia Ramirez, who both work at a government hospital in Tijuana, spoke to the AP as they waited outside an emergency room at Loma Linda University Medical Center for word on a friend who suffered a broken neck.

SPEEDS OF 60 MPH

Barrientos believed the bus reached speeds of 60 mph during the drive down the mountain that he estimated lasted five minutes before the collision.

"I saw many people dead. There are very, very horrendous images in my head, things I don't want to think about," he said.

Barrientos said he was uninjured and immediately began searching for Ramirez and the other friend, who were both ejected. After he moved them away from the bus to safety, he assisted the bus driver.

Ramirez suffered bruises and a hairline vertebra fracture.

"I was overwhelmed," she said. "I'm a surgical resident and I usually know how to react, but I was so in shock I didn't know what to do. I just stayed with my friend."

The crash left Highway 38 littered with debris, and the bus sideways across both lanes with its windows blown out, front end crushed and part of the roof peeled back like a tin can. The state Transportation Department website reported that the road was still closed at about 2:45 p.m.

The bus was going slowly down the hill and being passed by other vehicles when it suddenly sped up for an unknown reason, according to a person involved in the investigation who requested anonymity because the probe was ongoing.

The bus struck a Saturn sedan – one of the vehicles that had passed it – then spun and rolled, hitting the pickup, which was heading up the hill.

SMOKE FROM BACK OF BUS

Smoke was coming from the back of the bus, witnesses said. The bus eventually struck something on the side of the road that righted it and it came to a stop.

Related Links

Investigators continue to work Monday morning at the scene of a bus crash Sunday night on Highway 38 that killed at least eight people. STAN LIM, AP
Investigators continue to work the scene Monday of a bus crash Sunday night on Highway 38. STAN LIM, AP
Investigators continue to work the scene of a bus crash Sunday night on Highway 38. STAN LIM, AP
Survivors of a fatal bus crash reach out to comfort each other in the wake of the crash where at least eight people were killed. RICK SFORZA, AP
An investigator photographs the scene of the accident where at least eight people were killed and dozens were injured after a tour bus carrying a group from Tijuana crashed. RINGO H.W. CHIU, AP
Investigators work at the scene of the Highway 38 accident early Monday. RINGO H.W. CHIU, AP
An official views the wreckage of a tour bus Monday near Yucaipa. The tour bus carrying dozens of men, women and children from Tijuana on the way back from Big Bear crashed in the mountains of Southern California on Sunday killing at least eight people, authorities said. NICK UT, AP
Investigators examine victims near the scene where at least eight people were killed after a tour bus carrying a group from Tijuana crashed with two other vehicles near Yucaipa on Sunday. NICK UT, AP
Authorities work the scene where at least eight people were killed in a tour bus on the way back to Tijuana from Big Bear. RICK SFORZA, AP

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